"The stage version, directed by Michael Parva, is largely pedestrian. Whereas the movie jerked tears and evoked laughs, too, the stage adaptation more often evokes yawns...Ms. Ringwald, in long red curls, gives a satisfactory if perhaps insufficiently feisty performance as the self-involved Aurora..The film performances were indelible, and the ghosts of them inevitably hover over the production like a dampening shroud."
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"Aurora is an irresistible conundrum: by turns haughty, caustic, tender and raw. The role, firmly embedded in popular memory by Shirley MacLaine’s film turn, is an actor’s dream…except that yet another iteration, even a live one, raises the question: Why try to improve on perfection? Molly Ringwald does not succeed in doing so. Limited in affect, she is also not well served by Gordon’s CliffsNotes script, which has reduced the screenplay to brief, talky, faux-cinematic scenes."
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"The script is a disaster twice removed from the novel...Perfunctorily staged by Michael Parva on a barebones set by David L. Arsenault, the show’s emotional landscape is as flat as east Texas. That leaves the stars adrift, struggling to make a meal of slim pickings…The show’s sole spark of life comes from the Garret Breedlove of Jeb Brown…It’s a refreshingly ribald intrusion on an otherwise straitlaced and mostly painful two hours."
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"This iconic story is chockablock with themes that can grab you. And they did in the 1983 film...Theater audiences deserve better than a screenplay-tracing script and blah no-frills staging. Molly Ringwald, now 48, could use more shading as Aurora. Hannah Dunne is quietly persuasive as the doomed doormat Emma. Rent the movie."
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"Other than to capitalize on the famous title, this cynical exercise has little reason for being…The play dutifully recreates the key dramatic and comic moments of the movie beat for beat, making it feel somewhat like a theatrical CliffsNotes…Without any kind of fresh perspective or reinterpretation of the iconic source material, 'Terms of Endearment' mostly feels like one of the endless knockoffs of popular movies and old TV shows currently littering our television screens."
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"Gordon has neither opened up the source material for the theatrical medium, nor managed to prove why the work needs to exist in play form. There's a laziness that exists throughout as Gordon ultimately creates a crib sheet edition of ‘Terms of Endearment,’ hitting all of the original plot points and using a significant chunk of Brooks' dialogue, but not in service of saying anything new…While this production provokes the occasional chuckle, it doesn't implore us to cry or care."
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"The direction by Michael Parva is absolutely superb. With a stellar cast, it is a must-see production. 'Terms of Endearment' is an enthralling, realistic portrayal of humankind with all of its affection, humor and conflict...Bravo to the remarkable cast. Even if you are familiar with the story of 'Terms of Endearment,' you will be fascinated by this company's passionate and compelling performances...This charming yet heartrending story is one to cherish this holiday season."
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"Little more than a scrapbook of scenes from a beloved film...Very few, if any, scenes end with any kind of a 'button' or climax; more often than not, they simply trail off. You can get away with this in a film, through artful editing; onstage, it is living death...What works in the film is often painfully limp here, thanks to the disjointed structure, the aimless pacing of Michael Parva's direction, and the fact that Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson, and Debra Winger are missing in action."
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